Photo by Cori UrbanBora bora squash is is a dense, dry, flavorful squash with a long shelf life.

HADLEY—Mention the word “squash,” and what comes to mind? Butternut squash?

Walter J. Czajkowski, an owner of Plainville Farm in Hadley, wants to change that. He wants people to think of the little-known bora bora squash, a dry, flavorful squash with a bright interior color and long shelf life that has been popular with Hispanic and Asian populations.

“I think it’s a superior squash,” Czajkowski said, reasoning that it is flavorful and needs no added sweeteners like brown sugar or maple syrup. “It tastes better than acorn (squash), keeps better than acorn, and you don’t need to add flavor.”

His daughter, Nelly R. Czajkowski, likes to bake with bora bora squash, which originated in Brazil. “The nice thing about it is it is denser and less watery than pumpkins,” she said.

She said bora bora is also tasty in soups; just substitute it for butternut squash or use some of each in recipes like butternut bisque or minestrone soup.

The bora bora squash is the dark green color of buttercup squash and is shaped like a ribbed pumpkin. It has a hard, bumpy shell, and the average weight is four to five pounds.

This year Czajkowski’s operation harvested 200,000 pounds of bora bora squash, though the yield was not as much as he had hoped because of the rainy growing season.

It takes about three weeks more for the bora bora squash to ripen than butternut squash. “It’s the first squash planted and the last picked,” said Czajkowski who has grown bora bora for four seasons, this year planting about 10 acres.

“It stores wonderfully because of its hard shell and doesn’t dry out inside like other squashes can,” he said.

He was shipping the first load of bora bora squash to a Florida distributor Oct. 24, about two months earlier than usual because the demand was up due to rain and drought in other growing areas of the country, yet bora bora accounts for only a “small part” of his business, he said.

Czajkowski does not sell it to local distributors or supermarkets, but he would like to get it on the shelves for customers to try. “It’s hard to get people to try something new,” he lamented, sure that once customers try bora bora squash, they will be repeat buyers.

He does sell some bora bora to Judie’s Restaurant in Amherst for use instead of butternut squash and in meal specials, Nelly Czajkowski said.

Photo by Cori UrbanNelly R. Czajkowski, daughter of Walter J. Czajkowski, an owner of Plainville Farm in Hadley, sits on a bin of bora bora squash.

Her father likes to eat it straight: just cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and bake the squash. His daughter suggests cutting it into wedges and roasting it or stuffing a de-seeded half with stuffing and roasting it.

He pointed out that a more popular squash was once the blue hubbard, but the Waltham butternut squash became a favorite because it is more uniform in shape and size, with fewer crooknecks.

Waltham butternut, originated in in the 1960s in Waltham where it was developed at the Waltham Experiment Station by Robert E. Young who crossed New Hampshire butternut with a neckless moschata from Turkey.

Alfred W. McKinstry a veteran grower from Chicopee, said before the Waltham butternut the squash was not uniform. “We maybe got 30 percent to sell at stores” where uniformity is more desired, he said.

Photo by Cori UrbanWalter J. Czajkowski, an owner of Plainville Farm, shows some of the 200,000 pounds of bora bora squash grown this year at the Hadley farm. He hopes it will become as popular as butternut squash.

Czajkowski hopes the bora bora squash will follow the Waltham butternut and become “a standard of the industry.”

“This (bora bora) you hardly have to add anything to” for flavoring, he said.

If anyone wants to try it, he suggests asking a local produce manager to carry it or e-mailing a request to him at czajkowski135@charter.net.

Bora bora pumpkin pie

Pie crust:
1 stick of butter, cold and in pieces
1 c. flour
2-3 tbs. water
Place butter and flour in a food processor. Pulse until the butter and flour are mixed together. The butter should be in pea-sized pieces. Slowly add the water while pulsing until the dough loosely comes together. Turn out onto a cutting board and knead several times until it comes together. Form into a disk and refrigerate while making the filling.

Filling:
½ c. cream
½ tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. salt
½ c. brown sugar
1 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. bora bora puree
3 eggs
In a large bowl whisk the eggs. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Roll out the piecrust and place into a 10-inch pie plate. Pour filling into the pie shell. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned and the filling is set. A knife stuck into the center of the pie should come out clean.